President Obama: Giffords opened eyes for first time since shooting

by Sean Holstege - Jan. 12, 2011 08:40 PMThe Arizona Republic

TUCSON - A somber President Barack Obama delivered to an overflow audience inside the University of Arizona's McKale Center a stirring tribute to the fallen and the living after last weekend's massacre near Tucson.

The most emotional moment came midway through the address, when Obama strayed from the script to tell the crowd that Giffords had opened her eyes for the first time. The line was met with a sustained roar from a tearful crowd, while the first lady and Giffords' astronaut husband Mark Kelly embraced.

In an interview with CNN after the speech, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., said she was in the hospital room with Giffords. "I told her come on you've got to get better as soon as possible because we expect you up (at our house) in New Hampshire this summer," Wasserman said. "And just as I said that, that's when she, struggling to open her eyes...

Wasserman continued, "She started doing that. She just started rubbing his arm... She went from opening her eyes really just in slits to opening them almost fully. It wasn't for very long. Then, they'd close again.

"It was the most incredible experience that I've ever had."

The continued progress of Giffords as relayed by Obama provided the most electrifying moment of his remarks.

An estimated 14,300 crammed into the arena, while 13,000 more could only see the historic event from the football stadium. The event drew young and old, people in wheelchairs and people of all races.

Obama wore a dark suit and black tie, as the dedication began with a live performance of "Fanfare for the Common Man."

He opened his 34-minute speech with humility.

"There is nothing I can say that will fill the sudden hole torn in your hearts. But know this: the hopes of a nation are here tonight. We mourn with you for the fallen," Obama said.

Obama said Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot during a "quintessentially American scene that was shattered by a gunman's bullets. And the six people who lost their lives on Saturday - they too represented what is best in America."

Then the president paid homage to those who perished: Judge John Roll, Dorothy Morris, Phyllis Schneck, Dorwan Stoddard, Gabe Zimmerman and nine-year-old Christina Taylor Green.

"Our hearts are broken by their sudden passing. Our hearts are broken - and yet, our hearts also have reason for fullness."

Obama said the nation is grateful to the people who tended to the stricken and stopped the gunman from killing more.

"Heroism is here, all around us, in the hearts of so many of our fellow citizens, just waiting to be summoned - as it was on Saturday morning," Obama said.

Obama did not shirk from the controversies about free speech, gun rights and partisanship that have erupted since the attack.

"It's important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds," he said.

As the arena filled in, the Obamas met with the families of all the shooting victims and dignitaries, including former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Arizona Senators John McCain and Jon Kyl, plus State Majority Leader Kirk Adams, R-Mesa, and Minority Leader Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix.

Before the speech began, a huge screen showed dignitaries, plus some of the people being heralded as heroes in the aftermath of Saturday's shooting. The University of Arizona surgeons who operated on Giffords and her aid, Daniel Hernandez, Jr., who staunched her bleeding, got huge receptions.

The Obamas hugged Hernandez and the president shook his hand.

Obama ended on a message of hope, as a mostly smiling crowd sat riveted by his oratory.

"I believe that for all our imperfections, we are full of decency and goodness, and that the forces that divide us are not as strong as those that unite us."

"That's what I believe, in part because that's what a child like Christina Taylor Green believed. Imagine: Here was a young girl who was just becoming aware of our democracy," Obama said. "I want us to live up to her expectations. I want our democracy to be as good as she imagined it. All of us, we should do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children's expectation."